Kobani — another Warsaw?

[ALB]

As Kobani, in the Kurdish part of Syria, seems about to suffer the fate of Warsaw in 1944 — overrun by barbarians as a powerful army waits outside, here's something somebody posted on our facebook page a few months ago.

http://www.kurdishquestion.com/insight-research/analysis/socialism-gender-equality-and-social-ecology-in-the-mountains-of-kurdistan/81-socialism-gender-equality-and-social-ecology-in-the-mountains-of-kurdistan.html

Here's an extract:

Quote:

The concept of money is internally redundant within the KCK system implemented in the mountains of Kurdistan. The economic needs of the inhabitants of the KCK system are internally supplied through a communal management of resources. Although money is utilised in economic dealings with external systems, internally the concept of money is inconceivable. No person or community within the KCK system feels the need to build a surplus of goods or resources. Surpluses are constantly redistributed, therefore, viably consumed. Reminiscent of pre-hierarchical and pre-exploitative societies, the KCK system adopts a culture of gifting, rather than a culture of exchange. The communal organisation of agriculture ensures a self-sufficient production and consumption of resources, therefore, deeming surplus, exchange value and the commodification of goods irrelevant.

I don't know how true it is but it sounds a lot better than what the Islamic State barbarians will impose once they control the area. Gerrard Winstanley might have approved.

[Young Master Smeet]

The Morning Star have been wetting themselves over the Kurdish Republic of Rojava:http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-8069-Kurds-keep-resisting-Isis-attack-on-Rojava#.VDPiD9jgdhc 

[alanjjohnstone]

David Graeber makes comparison with Spanish civil war.http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/08/why-world-ignoring-revolutionary-kurds-syria-isis

Quote:

the PKK itself is no longer anything remotely like the old, top-down Leninist party it once was. Its own internal evolution, and the intellectual conversion of its own founder, Abdullah Ocalan, held in a Turkish island prison since 1999, have led it to entirely change its aims and tactics.The PKK has declared that it no longer even seeks to create a Kurdish state. Instead, inspired in part by the vision of social ecologist and anarchist Murray Bookchin, it has adopted the vision of “libertarian municipalism”, calling for Kurds to create free, self-governing communities, based on principles of direct democracy, that would then come together across national borders – that it is hoped would over time become increasingly meaningless. In this way, they proposed, the Kurdish struggle could become a model for a wordwide movement towards genuine democracy, co-operative economy, and the gradual dissolution of the bureaucratic nation-state.Since 2005 the PKK, inspired by the strategy of the Zapatista rebels in Chiapas, declared a unilateral ceasefire with the Turkish state and began concentrating their efforts in developing democratic structures in the territories they already controlled…the Syrian revolution gave Kurdish radicals the chance to carry out such experiments in a large, contiguous territory, suggests this is anything but window dressing. Councils, assemblies and popular militias have been formed, regime property has been turned over to worker-managed co-operatives – and all despite continual attacks by the extreme rightwing forces of Isis. The results meet any definition of a social revolution.  

As with ALB i have to confess my ignorance about all this. I hope it is true. I do recall reading about Ocalan's Road to Damascus conversion (pun intended) in prison but didn't know if this was followed up by the organisation. I would welcome a few links to read further. 

[hallblithe]

Starting in 2012 a communalist social system has been in the process of transforming Rojava (West Kurdistan, or Syrian Kurdistan). This firsthand account of the institutions of that transformation was written in the early summer of 2014 and thus before the current war:http://new-compass.net/articles/revolution-rojava

[alanjjohnstone]

Libcom has a thread that may be of interest http://libcom.org/news/anarchists-join-fight-against-isis-defend-kurdish-autonomous-areas-03102014

[alanjjohnstone]

Hallblithe, i found the article very interesting and noted that in some ways their democracy is the twin-track parliamentary and extra-parliamentary road that we suggest may happen in practice.

Quote:

This problem has been solved in Rojava through a dual structure. On one hand a parliament is chosen, to which free elections under international supervision are to take place as soon as possible. This parliament forms a parallel structure to the councils; it forms a transitional government, in which all political and social groups are represented, while the council system forms a kind of parallel parliament. The structuring and rules of this collaboration are at the moment under discussion.

Again i must plead mea culpa in not having followed this development and as Graeber says it is to be seen in the perspective of other and past events such as Spain and Chiapas.To hark on about other threads, i treat this lapse as another failure of myself and of the Party to appreciate a changing consciousness in world politics that leaves us a marginal influence (such as with our interaction or lack of it with Occupy). Something positive was taking place (no matter its flaws) and we were not able to make useful comparisons to indicate an alternative way forward can be practicable and feasible and not idealistic wishing. It is no compensation that other libertarian groups also suffered from this failure.  I have to still follow up all the links in the Libcom thread but a few appear to question the PKK sincerity or at least offer criticisms of them. 

[alanjjohnstone]

Another article that is worth a read from Zaher Baher of Haringey Solidarity Group, another personal account of a visit.http://libcom.org/news/experiment-west-kurdistan-syrian-kurdistan-has-proved-people-can-make-changes-zaher-baher-2?page=1 

Quote:

what happened in West Kurdistan was not Ocallan’s Idea, as many people want to tell us. In fact this idea is very old and Ocallan developed these thoughts in prison, familiarizing himself with them through reading hundreds and hundreds of books, non-stop thinking and analyzing the experiences of nationalist movements, communist movements and their governments in the region and the world and why all of them failed and could not deliver what they claimed. The basis of all this is that he is convinced that the state, whatever its name and form, is a state and cannot disappear when replaced by another state. For this, Abdulla Ocallan deserves credit.

[alanjjohnstone]

Anyways my admitted shortage of knowledge hasn't stopped me from throwing together a SOYMB blog post using those sources cited and a title inspired by ALB original post.http://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2014/10/barbarians-at-gates.html

[ALB]

There are clearly some interesting ideas circulating in the area but I wonder how widespread they are. I remember "left communists" getting worked up by the formation of "workers' councils" in Iraqi Kurdistan in the uprising there against the Saddam regime in 1991. For instance:http://www.campin.me.uk/Politics/kurdistan/shoras.htmlWe know that there is nothing particularly remarkable about "workers councils" and that they tend to emerge in conditions where there has not been any local government structure (and that they are not necessarily politically acceptable — witness the 1974 Ulster Workers Council). But at least they show that workers are capable of taking things in hand.We had a member who came from Iraqi Kurdistan who had previously been a member of the Workers Communist Party of Iraq. He is no longer a member and is now back there. His account of politics in Iraqi Kurdistan was that it was dominated by two clans and that you had to show support for one or the other if you wanted a government job or other favour. (He said the best solution was to join both). I notice from watching TV that the head of the government there is called Barzani and that the man in charge of the armed forces there is also called Barzani (his son, I think).I would think that Kurdish nationalism is the dominating ideology in the Kurdish areas of Iraq and Syria. Not half as bad, I agree, as the barbarian ideology of the Islamists.

[alanjjohnstone]

When there is a power vacuum and a gap in  providing the requisites of survival, there arises such things as workers councils to fulfil that role. Hungary 56, Argentine.. Perhaps this is what we are witnessing…the necessary self-organisation of people in face of Syria's failed state (at least in that region). Syrian withdrawal from the area provided the space to organise and the Turkish hesitance to start another conflict in a volatile atmoshere.  But the people did have a choice to make …the authoritarian route others have chosen or the one which is pluralist/inclusive which they appear to have opted for…Might be a mistake to make too many comparisons with Iraqi Kurdistan…at the bottom of their autonomist movement is the oil wells. I recall there were indeed two Kurdish political parties and armies vying for control.Nor should we ignore the PKK and Ocalan's influence. But they are only part of the ingredients and a whole lot of other actors are involved but the fact that they aren't at eachothers throats does perhaps reflect the difference in politics that has occurred and the steps forward being taken. The sources describing the libertarian nature of the region seem to be wider than the Left Communist/ICC and there does appear to be an overlap of ideas with the Zapatista political approach.A work in progress is how i see the situation, i think. But still of sufficient interest and importance for further study and to acquire lessons from, such as implementing various models of democratic structures different, that have been created voluntarily and not imposed.. Broadly speaking, though, we shouldn't be too dismissive of what has been achieved and we certainly should be vocal in defending it in print and speech…I doubt many party members would be willing to volunteer to go and defend them in an International-style Brigade…we can't get them even to branch meetings!But we should be clearly and vocally expressing where our sympathies lie…with fellow workers trying to protect what limited liberties they have successfully managed to obtain and seeingly have expanded upon even if the sad reality is the prospect of eventual defeat, not by ISIS, but the Syrian and Turkish states once they feel ready to re-assert their state power in the region. A editorial in the Standard would not go amiss, once the situation in Kobane is settled, one way or another…an editorial of solidarity and hope if the Kurds prevail…one of sadness and condemnation if ISIS wins out. Should we be calling for Cameron's Tornadoes  to act as the Kurd's airforce..demand Turkish troop intervention…CIA weapons….an alliance with the FSA or Syrian government army.? I have serious doubts about that….Graeber's parallel with Spain is perhaps too close…"Stalinisation" of the Republic …but in this context…the Kurdish resistance again being betrayed by so-called allies "helping" out. 

[J Surman]

It seems impossible to know how things are going from one minute to the next. There's plenty of talk going on in local media but there is a lot of control over that here. So many threads going on at the same time.Here's a take from Urfa, a Turkey/Syrian border town, in Turkey from Roar Mag:http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/roarmag/~3/y_4lK6UQ2Nc/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=emailWe're more than 600 miles from the largely Kurdish area where most of the protests are taking part and here locals seem to blame Erdogan for anything and everything that is bad, or goes wrong. They are not AKP supporters in the main. A lot of folk are more worried about the domestic issues linked to Erdogan's long stint in government and now as president cum sultan – that they will wake up one day and find they have a state that is based on religion as Iran is. One avowedly secular friend speculates about a break up of Turkey (not along the US lines of Turkey/Kurdistan) but as two states, the eastern religious one and the western secular.But, back to Kobane, Turkey/US/UK and 'allies' are certainly playing a double game. Prime target is still Assad, which might have to be delayed while they pretend to lessen the strength of ISIS, and of course their agendas do not coincide neatly which also adds problems to the whole. Turkey and US are at odds about how to proceed at this point but make no mistake Erdogan is determined to be top dog in the area.Re Ocalan's philosophy, I have some of his 'prison writings'. You can find them listed on Wikipedia and also Amazon. 

[ALB]

Quote of the Day, from President Erdogan of Turkey:

Quote:

Mr Erdogan questioned the motives of the anti-Isis allies and accused them of meddling in the region's affairs for the past century. "Do you think they come for peace, with their planes and their missiles?" he asked an audience at Marmara University, Istambul. "No," he said. "They do it to get the petrol wells under their control." (Times, 14 October)

[J Surman]

"Rojava has many foes Turkey: The example of Rojava is not liked, because it may be the blueprint of a federal Turkey with Kurdish autonomy and it challenges the existing central government. USA: Because Rojava cannot be used against Bashar Al-Assad, the United States are not interested to support it. Northern Iraq: The autonomous Kurdish province in northern Iraq under the rule of tribal leader Barzani boycotts Rojava because the conservative and autocratic Barzani clan has no interest in a democratic model in its neighborhood. Most of the regional neighbors are against Rojava because the Arab states have a patriarchal society and emancipatory movements are undesirable and viewed as a threat to the social fabric."The above from Mato's blog (http://mato48.com/2014/10/16/rojava-has-no-friends/) – these four sentences are pretty apposite. Each player has his own agenda. How can a number of 'independent' states, all with different interests, ever really work to a satisfactory outcome for all? They talk about 'international agreements' – what a joke.Included in this blog is quite a bit about Ocalan's 'Democratic Federalism' which was discussed here a few posts ago and it's worth reading.My view on this 'Kurdish autonomous region' is that thy are engaged in defending their region against ISIS (ISIL, IS, ISID) along with the Syrian army (in different areas) defending Syria against the same, plus all and any of NATO's aggression. Early on in this fracas Assad agreed with the Kurds that he would leave them to their own autonomy and defence , freeing up the Syrian army to concentrate elsewhere. The US and allies long term goal is not ISIS, they're a tool, but the overthrow of Assad pure and simple.

[alanjjohnstone]

From the  Rojava Social Contract [consitution]

Quote:

Article 39: All mineral resources and natural resources belong to the society as a whole. Their exploitation, processing, and use is regulated by law. Article 40: In the democratically-autonomous administrations any property and land is owned by the population. Use and distribution are regulated by law.

I would be interested in knowing a little bit more on how regulation is administered in practice and how the conflicting claims to use of land and resources is resolved. 

Quote:

Article 2: a) The source of power is the population, the population rules. The administration is ensured by institutions and elections. All hierarchies, which are directed against the social contract of the democratic autonomous administration, are illegitimate. b) The owner of the democratically created councils and executive bodies is the population. The monopolization by a group or class will not be tolerated.

Much has been said in labour history of various workers' and social movements around the world and if it transpires that the claims and aspirations of the Rojava region is substantiated and as widespread as they say, then surely too this trial should also enter the annals of working class history, whether it survives or not, to be studied in greater detail for lessons to be learned. We can all pick faults with movements such as this and also with the Zapatistas but they are qualitatively different from the usual national liberation resistance movements in that they do seem to genuinely reflect and act in the interests of the grassroots and endeavour to implement ways of administration that are expressing a democratic desire. They go beyond workers councils/soviets/industrial union model in that they are experiments in community control, transforming already existing institutions and creating new ones to extend responsibilities and management something people within the party discuss regard to local government and councils being adapted and turned into structure more fit for use. Regards to democratic confederation, eventually it cannot avoid coming up against the capitalist state and the corporations. 

Quote:

 under certain circumstances, a peaceful coexistence is possible as long as the nation-state does not interfere in central issues of self-government.

The two examples are a resource-scarce economic backward rural region in Mexico and an area where a power vacuum arose due to war conditions that permits non-interference. How applicable is it elseswhere? Is it merely a re-phrasing of what the Bolsheviks call dual-power and inevitably a contest for primacy breaks out?

Quote:

 Democratic confederalism is not at war with any nation-state, but will be vigilant against assimilation efforts. A violent revolution or the founding of a new nation will not create sustainable change. In the long term freedom and justice can only be achieved within a dynamic democratic confederal process.

As we always say, you cannot build the foundations of a new society on the ruined rubble of the old one, (well, not as easily)Much food for thoughtful digestion, nevertheless.

[J Surman]

alanjjohnstone wrote:

As we always say, you cannot build the foundations of a new society on the ruined rubble of the old one, (well, not as easily)Much food for thoughtful digestion, nevertheless.

Plus we need to remember this is in the middle of a war zone. This set up began in 2012, as related in the article, when local population took over municipality buildings and the security bods gave up followed by municipal workers resigning or walking out to become 'normal citizens'.Work in progress. I have read in Ocalan's prison writings that he recognises that this is not 'true' socialism and that true socialism is not possible in one country. (I'm hoping nobody asks for exactly where – it could take a while to rediscover it!)

[Author]

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